1. BC unveiled a new budget with higher taxes, service cuts and a spiralling deficit going to $9.6-billion. The BC government needs to find a way to do more with less. It needs to look for efficiencies.
2. The Code With Us put out a project for bids: “Improvements to Air Quality Warnings Shiny App” ( https://marketplace.digital.gov.bc.ca/opportunities/code-with-us/7f216ab7-44ed-414b-b5a9-48988ea44655 ). It’s to be coded with the programming language “R.” It’s a powerful language and used in the BC government IT projects. At $16k, this is a decent little project for some R conversant developer.

I asked myself: How much of this could be done by AI?

First, I drafted the proposal to answer the bid (link) using Claude AI. I’m not going to create a winning proposal. I can’t get this work. I don’t know R and I don’t have any projects with R experience. Nevertheless,a project like this can’t be won if one doesn’t submit a proposal.

Second, I took the project details from the Code With Us post and had Claude AI draft a project requirements document (PRD) ( link ). If the project details were accurate and descriptive, the PRD should reflect what’s involved to build this application.

Third, I built the app. I don’t know R. I have almost 45 years of coding experience, so I know how to get a grasp of a technology that I don’t understand. I know what questions to ask. I took what little I knew. I combined that with a new Github code repository ( link ). I opened up the OpenAI service, Codex and began the code generation. It took several rounds of steering the code, but in the end I had a working application written in R. I put it up in a deployment environment and tried it out. It works. It’s important to note that this works according to the plan and a plan built according to the marketplace opportunity. In a real world use, it may fall short of what’s needed. If it does come up short, the planning step can be re-evaluated and the code build can be re-run.

This isn’t the first time I’ve used Codex to build code. I have used it to quickly build WordPress plugins and apps. I have used other systems like Claude, Loveable, Bolt and Minimax, and Grok to build applications. These AI systems work great to build applications quickly. They all need good planning and oversight, but they can all turn out good code.

In a cash strapped world, we need to find ways to do things better and faster. I used artificial intelligence to write a proposal for this $16,000 project; write a plan; implement that plan; and deploy the application in something like 3 hours.

The Anatomy of a Software Project

An application development project can be described as having three components:

• Planning
• Development
• Viability

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop applications is sometimes called “Vibe coding.” Almost all of the development is left up to the AI. Taken to the extreme: the planning, development and viability can all be turned over to your favourite AI builder.

Organizations ranging from private industry through to national governments are looking at AI and wondering how it can help them. How AI can speed delivery; drop the headcount in their organization; and/or deflate the budget requirements. AI can accomplish all three.

Planning, development and the application viability could be thought of as a three legged bar stool. If not built right, that bar stool will be a disaster to use. When building a project, these three elements can compete for a finite well of time, money and attention. Short-changing one element, can force the other elements to balloon to cushion the shortfall. It’s the adage of “you can have fast, cheap or good– pick two.” The competing priorities could live in harmony. At the same time, they could be faster, cheaper and better. Pick all three?

Maybe we don’t need to build project bar stools. If we break down these parts of a project when armed with AI, project completion could look very different.

Planning

Planning doesn’t need to be a formal, drawn-out process. In the most simple terms: it’s the headline. What should the application do? What should it work with? What does it do?

Project planning captures the timeline, specifications, diagrams, and details and anything to trap the elements of the project. This planning includes the user interface (UI), the user experience (UX) and a firm picture of what work the application does.

Planning is the most important and least visible part of an application. My personal experience: if a project is exhaustively planned, it can land on a dime. All of the pieces make sense. All of the details are captured. All of the stakeholders appreciate the project.

It’s pretty clear that planning is sometimes skimped out. Many programs show up full of holes. The functionality doesn’t work. There are glaring security holes. They just don’t work.

Development

From a programmer’s perspective, the development is “the work.” We know better, but for all intents and purposes, the programming appears to be the work. Without the code, all you’d have is great planning documents. It often takes up the lion’s share of the time and budget involved. If the planning is clear and succinct, the development phase will be the majority of the project. If planning is shortcut, the development goes from a smooth ride to bumpy disaster. Questions arise. Vagaries fester. It plays out the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Inadequate planning will drag out a project. Development without a plan can be an expensive, exhausting exercise in frustration.

Viability

A plan is a good idea. Development is the realization of that plan. Viability: it’s how the project goes out into the world. UI and UX from the planning phases hits the screen. Does it work? Do the users make sense of it? If people dislike the interface, they won’t use it.

Beyond the look and feel, the really big consideration: security. As code does more things– more connectivity, more utility and more performance– there are more opportunities for problems that arise from security holes. Can the logins be faked? Can the data be scooped? Can financial and personal data be siphoned out of the application? An attractive app with big security holes is radioactive.

Assume the application is pretty and all of its security is locked down. Will it work long term? There is a concept called “technical debt.” Technical debt are the awkward parts of launching a program. Can the program be added easily by the user? Is its data portable when needed (migrating to a new device; or restoring a backup)? Can the program be upgraded as needed? Will the code work with newer operating systems? There are thousands of fantastic programs, plugins and tools that worked on old computers, but die on anything from the 2000s. When an application works but hides fussy elements– that application isn’t going to flourish.

After the coding is all done, the other front of viability: adoption. Marketing, documentation, support and marketplace fit are all challenges to the longevity of an application. If a great product is also an unknown product, it’s eventually doomed through a lack of adoption.

Good planning, smart development and lots of testing will expose issues. Viability comes down to the survivability of the application when it goes out into that big cruel world.

How AI Changes The Game

People are still confused about how artificial intelligence works. While touted as intelligence, what it really does well is a colossal exercise in auto complete. Give a chatbot a prompt and it runs with it to satisfy the prompt. Chatbots have indexed massive amounts of programming code from other available projects. They can use that code as an example of how to build new code.

AI works very fast. In the last year, AI gained the capacity to work long. It can take on increasingly larger projects, spending the time to code elaborate solutions. The OpenAI service, Codex, is capable of developing very large and elaborate applications. It can store its code in a code repository– a storage tool to track changes and manage the sharing of the code between developers.

At its core, AI is a computer system: it needs explicit direction to do anything. AI is fantastic at filling in the blanks but those blanks are where variability can creep in. The solution is to be exhaustive on the details. AI can take in a very large set of instructions to work from.

Our workflow: we write a detailed product requirements document (PRD). It outlines what the project needs to succeed. We build that with Claude, iterating the project plan until it’s detailed enough for a developer to work with. If it’s good enough for a developer, it’s good enough for an AI. We hand that PRD to Codex and ask it to develop the application drawing from the PRD details. After the work is detailed, we do a combination of manual and AI driven code reviews. We draft security documents to cover testing and find issues that could threaten the success of the application and the security of its data.

Before the chatbot era, development step took the lion’s share task of a project. A deep planning exercise was always good, but it could be abbreviated by personalities and budget pressures. No one wants to short change the security and viability aspects, but those aspects get squeezed just to get a product out the door. What resulted were applications that did the work, thin on planning and band-aided security.

AI flips the script. The biggest component– the development– can be handed over to Codex and similar tools to build the code. That bulk can be externalized. The work happens much faster. It can happen better. It can be coded at an expert level. The found time and found budget can go into planning to get a clear target. The breathing room can go into the viability topics to ensure it’s safe, it’s appreciated and its utility has some longevity.

How Is This Relevant to 2026 British Columbia?

The BC government’s Digital Marketplace posted a $16,000 opportunity. Depending on billable rates, $16k ranges from 320 hrs. of development at $50/hr.; all the way to 80 hrs. of development at $200/hr.. That 80 – 320 hours of development time should cover planning, development and security / viability. It will likely be a 25%-60%-15% split of where the hours go. Arguably, the majority of any budget goes to the development phase. What happens to project labour breakdowns if the majority of the work can get replaced with AI?

Imagine if the project splits were to radically change:

• 40% of the budget into planning and prep;
• 20% of the budget goes to the development;
• 40% of the budget goes to security and the longevity of the application.

Beyond re-cutting the resource pie, shrink the pie. Look at the $16k project above. If they forecast that 60% of the project or $9600 went to development, but that could be done with a few hours of vibe coding and a strong requirements document– then a project needs less time to deliver. Replace that $9600 bulge with 12 hours of development; precede it with 24 hours of planning; and follow it with 24 hours of viability work. Use AI to get more out of the planning work; and then get more out of the viability steps at the end of the project. Maybe a $16k project could become a $10k project delivered faster and better thanks to AI. That’s a savings. Wherever there is knowledge work (coding, number crunching, etc.), AI can play a role in delivering that work better, faster and for less money. The delivery comes down to skill.

Organizations look at AI with technological superstition. They think it will simultaneously take all the jobs and do the work poorly. Some organizations have laid off people or stalled hiring because they’re replacing people with AI systems. Those organizations have seen minimal wins. They’re missing the role of AI.

AI in the workplace is not about replacing people. It’s about enhancing them. Think of a good suite of AI tools and techniques as an Iron Man suit, not a robot worker. Your people could do more, do it better and do it faster. That found time can be sunk into making solutions that are more ruggedized and well tested.

Organizations looking to deliver more for less need to look at what artificial intelligence can do to help. Imagine if the BC government could deliver its IT projects for less money? That’s not going to knock down the tremendous BC government deficit, but every little bit helps.

The post AI Led Programming appeared first on Web321: Your Best WordPress Support.

When a healthcare non-profit’s website goes down, it’s not just an inconvenience—it’s families unable to find bereavement services, donors unable to give memorial gifts, and patients unable to access end-of-life resources. Your website isn’t marketing; it’s mission-critical infrastructure.

Most healthcare non-profits struggle with the same digital challenges: tight budgets, limited IT resources, and the unique demands of serving vulnerable populations while maintaining fundraising capabilities.

The Reality of Non-Profit Website Management

Healthcare non-profits, like hospices and foundations, face challenges that typical businesses simply don’t encounter:

Time-Sensitive Fundraising Campaigns
When Giving Tuesday arrives or a memorial campaign launches, you need speedy website updates with a team on standby if something goes wrong. Your team doesn’t have time to troubleshoot WordPress—donations are on the line.

Multiple Stakeholders, Varying Tech Skills
Your communications director needs to update content. Your fund development team needs donation forms. Your clinical staff needs educational resources published. Everyone needs it to “just work.”

Strict Privacy and Accessibility Requirements
You’re serving grieving families, patients facing end-of-life decisions, and vulnerable populations. PIPEDA compliance isn’t optional, and accessibility isn’t negotiable.

Limited Internal IT Resources
Your team is already wearing multiple hats. Adding “WordPress troubleshooting” to the communications coordinator’s job description isn’t sustainable.

Global Reach with Local Compliance
Your educational resources might serve international researchers while your donor data must stay in Canada. One website, two very different requirements.

What Professional WordPress Support Actually Looks Like

1. Campaign-Ready Response Times

In one recent example, when a hospice’s Giving Tuesday campaign needed to go live, they required:

• Same-day homepage carousel implementation
• Custom donation tracking integration
• Multiple rounds of client feedback
• Live deployment on the busiest fundraising day of the year

The result? Campaign launched flawlessly with prominent calls-to-action capturing donations during the critical 2X matching period. No stressed staff, no missed donations, no technical emergencies.

2. Empowering Internal Teams

Non-profits need to manage their own content between support calls. Professional support means:

• Custom video tutorials for your specific workflows
• Intuitive WordPress admin interfaces tailored to your needs
• Patient guidance when staff encounter issues
• Systems that allow teams to work independently

One communications specialist told us: “I’ve never done this before and can’t find instructions” in the morning. By afternoon, she had custom Loom training and was managing memorial stories independently.

3. Technical Expertise When It Matters

Healthcare websites require robust technical foundations:

• Platform maintenance: PHP upgrades, WordPress core updates, merge conflict resolution
• Email deliverability: SMTP configuration for Microsoft’s changing requirements
• Security & accessibility: Firewall management, international access, WCAG compliance
• Integration expertise: Issuu flip books, Blackbaud donation forms, Instagram feeds, contact form routing

4. Understanding Healthcare Communication Needs

Complex contact form routing ensures:

• Bereavement inquiries reach counseling staff immediately
• Education requests go to research teams
• Media inquiries route to communications
• Volunteer applications reach coordinators
• Everything stays PIPEDA compliant

5. Seasonal Campaign Management

Healthcare non-profits have intense fundraising cycles:

• Leave a Legacy Month (May): Updated pop-ups and landing pages
• Giving Tuesday (November): Full homepage redesigns with donation widgets
• Annual Reports (Year-end): Multi-format document publishing
• Memorial Events: Time-sensitive tribute page updates

The Canadian Data Sovereignty Advantage

For healthcare organizations, keeping data in Canada isn’t preference—it’s often policy:

PIPEDA Compliance
Patient and donor information protected under Canadian privacy law, not subject to US CLOUD Act

Healthcare Sector Regulations
Meeting provincial health authority requirements for data handling

Peace of Mind
Your donors, patients, and families deserve Canadian privacy protections

Real-World Problem Solving

Challenge: Staff member going on 2-month leave, all website forms need redirecting

Solution: Comprehensive audit and rerouting of 8 different form submission paths

Impact: Zero interruption in donor communication or service inquiries

Challenge: International researchers blocked from accessing clinical tools

Solution: Coordinated firewall and CDN configuration to restore access

Impact: Global access restored to palliative care research resources

Challenge: Urgent campaign needs homepage updates on a holiday

Solution: Custom carousel, donation widget, multiple design iterations—same day

Impact: Campaign launched on schedule with conversion-optimized design

What Makes Healthcare Non-Profit Support Different

Supporting healthcare organizations requires:

1. Compassion-First Communication: Understanding that website updates often relate to grieving families or end-of-life care
2. Regulatory Awareness: PIPEDA, accessibility standards, healthcare privacy requirements
3. Fundraising Cycle Knowledge: Peak giving seasons, memorial events, legacy campaigns
4. Multi-Stakeholder Coordination: Fund development, communications, clinical staff, IT departments
5. Crisis Readiness: Same-day support when campaigns or memorial events require it

Is Your Healthcare Non-Profit Struggling?

Warning signs you need specialized WordPress support:

• Outdated security plugins putting donor data at risk
• Staff turnover creating knowledge gaps
• Urgent campaign needs with no internal capacity
• Privacy compliance concerns keeping you up at night
• International accessibility issues blocking your reach
• Contact form chaos with inquiries going to wrong departments

The Web321 Approach for Non-Profits

For just $321/month, healthcare non-profits get:

✅ Proactive Maintenance – We don’t wait for things to break

✅ Patient Training – Video tutorials your team can reference anytime

✅ Fast Turnarounds – Same-day support for time-sensitive campaigns

✅ Canadian Hosting – PIPEDA-compliant infrastructure with data sovereignty

✅ Fixed CAD Pricing – Predictable budgeting with no surprise USD conversions

✅ Unlimited Small Tasks – Content updates, form changes, image uploads

✅ Premium Plugins Included – Gravity Forms, security tools, performance optimization

What $321/Month Actually Includes:

Security & Performance:

• Daily backups stored securely for 90 days
• Daily security scans with malware detection
• Weekly WordPress, theme, and plugin updates
• Site uptime monitoring with emergency recovery
• Powerful firewall protection
• SSL certificate implementation

Content & Support:

• Unlimited content updates (you provide content, we publish)
• Image editing (crop, resize, compress)
• Style tweaks and menu changes
• Simple form creation
• User role management
• Premium plugin suite (Gravity Forms Elite, Advanced Custom Fields, and more)

SEO & Analytics:

• Google Analytics setup and reporting
• Google Search Console configuration
• Ongoing SEO optimization
• Keyword tracking
• Page speed optimization

The Bottom Line:
No hiring a webmaster. No surprise invoices. No vendor lock-in. Just predictable, professional WordPress support that understands your mission. 

Working with Web321

When you partner with Web321, you get:

• Dedicated team that knows your site and organization
• Business hours support (Pacific Time) matching your schedule
• Healthcare expertise understanding fundraising cycles and compliance needs
• 15+ years WordPress experience applied to your mission
• Canadian values respecting privacy, accessibility, and data sovereignty

Compare the Alternatives:

Hiring a full-time webmaster:
$50,000-70,000/year + benefits

US-based WordPress support:
$300-500 USD/month (~$410-685 CAD) + data sovereignty concerns + time zone issues

DIY with stressed staff:
Burnout + security risks + missed opportunities = priceless (in the worst way)

Web321:
$321 CAD/month = professional support that respects your mission and budget

Real Client Feedback

“They understand what I can and can’t understand, and walk the line between helping me learn to be more self-sufficient, and doing the work for me when I can’t.“

“Their response time is fast. They are always pleasant to work with.“

“Thanks a lot for getting to this as priority, we really appreciate it.“

“Scratch that last one! I can do it myself 😊“ ← This is the goal.

Let’s Talk About Your Organization’s Needs

Healthcare non-profits deserve WordPress support that understands the stakes. Your website is how:

• Families find bereavement services during their darkest hours
• Donors give memorial gifts honoring loved ones
• Patients access critical end-of-life resources
• Communities discover your mission and get involved

For $321/month, you can stop worrying about your website and start focusing on your mission.

Ready to Experience the Difference?

📞 Call us: 1-844-4-WEB-321

📧 Email us: contact@web321.co

🌐 Visit us: web321.co (but you’re here already!)

—

Proudly serving Canadian healthcare organizations with WordPress support that respects your mission, protects your data, and fits your budget.

P.S. Still not sure? Try our service risk-free and see the difference specialized healthcare non-profit support makes. Let’s connect!

The post WordPress Support for Healthcare Non-Profits: Why Mission-Critical Websites Need Specialized Care appeared first on Web321: Your Best WordPress Support.

A QR code (short for Quick Response code) is a two-dimensional barcode that stores information in a pattern of black and white squares. Unlike traditional barcodes, which hold data in a single line, QR codes can store much more information—such as website URLs, text, contact details, or payment information—in a compact format that can be scanned instantly using a smartphone or QR code reader.

When scanned, a QR code quickly directs the user to the encoded data—often a webpage, app download link, or digital file—bridging the gap between offline materials and online content. This speed and versatility have made QR codes a common feature in marketing, packaging, event ticketing, and contactless transactions.

Popular Online QR Code Generators

Popular QR code generators include: QR Code Generator, QR Studio, QR Code Monkey, Bitly, QRStuff, Canva, and Adobe Express.

QR Code Generator

One of the most established platforms in the space, QR Code Generator offers a straightforward interface with extensive customization options. Users can create codes for URLs, text, email, SMS, phone numbers, and more. The free version provides basic functionality, while paid plans unlock features like high-resolution downloads, analytics, and dynamic QR codes that can be edited after creation.

QR Code Monkey

QR Code Monkey stands out for its completely free service with no registration required. It offers impressive customization capabilities, including color adjustments, logo embedding, and various design templates. The platform supports multiple data types and allows users to download codes in various formats including PNG, SVG, and EPS, making it ideal for both digital and print applications.

QR Studio

QR Studio (https://QRCode.web321.co) provides a user-friendly platform for creating QR codes with a focus on simplicity and accessibility. The service offers straightforward QR code generation with various customization options to meet different user needs. Whether you’re creating codes for personal or business use, this generator provides a reliable solution with an intuitive interface that makes the process quick and efficient.

Bitly

While primarily known as a URL shortener, Bitly has expanded to include robust QR code generation capabilities. The platform excels in providing detailed analytics, showing how many times your code has been scanned, when, and from where. This makes it particularly valuable for marketing professionals tracking campaign performance.

QRStuff

QRStuff offers one of the most comprehensive ranges of QR code types, supporting over 25 different data formats including WiFi credentials, calendar events, app store links, and social media profiles. The platform provides both static and dynamic codes, with the latter allowing you to change the destination URL without regenerating the code.

Canva

For users prioritizing design aesthetics, Canva integrates QR code generation into its broader graphic design platform. This allows you to seamlessly incorporate QR codes into posters, flyers, business cards, and other marketing materials while maintaining visual consistency with your brand.

Adobe Express

Adobe Express provides QR code generation as part of its creative suite, offering professional-grade customization and integration with other Adobe tools. It’s particularly useful for designers who need QR codes that align with sophisticated brand guidelines.

Choosing a QR Code Generator

When selecting a QR code generator, consider:

Dynamic vs. Static Codes: Dynamic QR codes allow you to change the destination URL after creation, making them ideal for campaigns where you might need flexibility. Static codes are permanent and typically free, but cannot be modified once generated.

Customization Options: Modern generators offer design capabilities, including color changes, logo integration, frame additions, and shape modifications. These features help maintain brand consistency and make codes more visually appealing.

Analytics and Tracking: Premium generators often include scan analytics, providing valuable data about user engagement, geographic location, device types, and scanning times. This information is crucial for measuring campaign effectiveness.

Resolution and File Formats: Different use cases require different output formats. Vector formats like SVG and EPS are essential for print materials, while PNG and JPG work well for digital applications. Ensure your chosen generator supports the formats you need.

Bulk Generation: If you need to create multiple QR codes simultaneously, look for generators offering batch creation features, which can save considerable time.

Error Correction: QR codes include built-in error correction, allowing them to function even when partially damaged. Higher error correction levels enable logo embedding but result in denser codes.

Common Use Cases

Online QR code generators serve diverse purposes across industries. Restaurants use them for contactless menus, retailers incorporate them in packaging for product information, and event organizers employ them for ticketing and registration. Marketing teams leverage QR codes in print advertisements to drive traffic to landing pages, while businesses use them on business cards to instantly share contact information.

Educational institutions create QR codes linking to course materials, museums use them for interactive exhibits, and real estate agents place them on property signs for instant listing access. The versatility of QR codes continues to expand as technology evolves.

Best Practices for Creating QR Codes

To ensure your QR codes function well, test them on multiple devices and scanning apps before distribution. Provide adequate white space around the code, known as the “quiet zone,” to ensure reliable scanning. Consider where the code will appear and adjust the size accordingly—codes on billboards need to be much larger than those on business cards.

When using customization features, maintain sufficient contrast between the code and background. While creative designs are appealing, functionality should remain the priority. If embedding a logo, keep it relatively small to avoid interfering with scannability.

Include a call-to-action near your QR code. Tell users what they’ll access by scanning. Context helps increase scan rates and improves user experience.

Privacy and Security Considerations

When using online QR code generators, be mindful of privacy implications. Some free generators may track usage data or insert advertisements. Review the platform’s privacy policy before creating codes containing sensitive information. For business-critical applications, consider using reputable paid services that offer better security guarantees and don’t inject their own tracking mechanisms.

The Future of QR Code Technology

QR code technology continues to evolve with emerging features like animated codes, augmented reality integration, and enhanced security measures. As smartphone camera capabilities improve and QR code recognition becomes more sophisticated, expect to see even more innovative applications across industries.

Find a generator suited to your needs. You can leverage QR codes to enhance user engagement and bridge physical and digital experiences. If your user base know how to aim the camera on their phone, you benefit.

When it comes to QR Code generators, find the right tool and approach that works for you.

The post QR Codes appeared first on Web321: Your Best WordPress Support.

QR Studio: What It Does and Why It’s Good

What is QR Studio?
QR Studio (https://qrcode.web321.co) is a versatile QR code generator and customization tool built for simplicity and power. Users can generate, customize, and manage QR codes for various purposes directly from a web-based interface — no software installation or coding skills required.

Core Features:

• Multiple QR Code Types: Instantly generate QR codes for website URLs, plain text, email, SMS, Wi-Fi network credentials, vCards (contacts), Twitter profiles, and even Bitcoin addresses.

• Customization: Users can set the foreground and background colors of their QR codes and adjust the size from 180px to 720px, allowing branded, visually appealing codes suited for print or digital use.

• User-Friendly Workflow: The app provides a simple form for entering data and previewing the QR code before download.

• High-Quality Output: QR codes are downloadable as print-ready PNG files, ensuring clarity for scanning on paper, posters, or screens.

• Management: Registered users can track code allowances, making the system scalable for multiple campaigns or frequent use.

• Premium Upgrade Option: For users needing more codes or advanced features, premium plans are available.

Why is QR Studio a Good Choice?

• Ease of Use: The workflow is straightforward — select type, enter details, customize appearance, preview, and download.

• Comprehensive Support: QR Studio’s features cover many real-world QR code uses, including marketing (URLs), events (Wi-Fi and vCards), payments (Bitcoin), and business communication (SMS/email).

• Dependability and Trust: Powered by Web321, a reputable Canadian web development firm, QR Studio combines robust hosting and active support. Users benefit from professional-level reliability and direct access to team support via email or call booking.

• No Installation Required: As a web app, QR Studio runs on any device with a browser.

• Flexible for Branding: With color and size options, businesses can easily produce codes that match their brand identity.

• Print-Ready Files: High-quality PNG output means QR codes are suitable for posters, flyers, packaging, digital screens, or business cards—ensuring maximum versatility.

• Privacy and Security: The platform is transparent about privacy, terms, and customer support, backed by a tech company experienced in secure web services.

Summary
QR Studio streamlines QR code creation and management, helping users leverage QR codes across marketing, events, payments, and more. With customization, print-quality downloads, and a trusted brand behind it, QR Studio stands out as a reliable, powerful tool for anyone needing QR codes for business or personal use.

The post QR Studio. Easy QR Codes from Web321 appeared first on Web321: Your Best WordPress Support.

What is a “delegate account”? The collaborator uses their own SiteGround login (no password sharing). Access can be limited to specific sites or roles. You can revoke or modify access any time.

To delegate access on a SiteGround account (for example, to a developer, designer, or marketing consultant), the client can follow a few simple steps in their SiteGround Client Area. Here’s a clear explanation you can share with them.

1. Log in to SiteGround

Go to siteground.com and log in using your usual credentials. Once logged in, you’ll be in your Client Area.[1][2]

2. Open the “Manage Users” section

Click on your profile icon (top right) and select Manage Users, or alternatively, open Websites from the top navigation and choose the website you want to share access to.[3][1]

3. Add a New User (Collaborator)

Click Add New User. A pop-up window will appear.[4][3]

Select the Collaborator option if the person needs access to the website tools (for editing, backups, etc.).

Select Client if you want to give white-labeled access to Site Tools without SiteGround branding.[5]

4. Enter the Delegate’s Details

Type the person’s name and email address (eg. clientcare@web321.co). SiteGround will use this to create or link their SiteGround profile.[2][6]

5. Set Access Permissions

Choose the website(s) to which you want them to have access and specify their permission level — e.g., website management, file access, or support request permissions.[7][2]

6. Send the Invitation

Click Add User or Send Invitation. The recipient will receive an email from SiteGround with a link to accept and join your account as a collaborator.[8][3]

What Happens Next

The collaborator will log in using their own SiteGround account (they do not use your login credentials). They will have access only to the sections and websites you selected.

Delegating access this way is safe and professional because:

This is the recommended way to securely allow your developer or consultant to manage your SiteGround account.

⁂

You can edit or remove their access at any time by returning to Manage Users in your Client Area.[9][2]

The post Setting Up A SiteGround Delegate Account appeared first on Web321: Your Best WordPress Support.

Residents of the Cowichan Valley will recall the annual events. It’s important to anticipate and build some buzz before the event comes up. Writing about coming events brings in attention that helps tourism businesses like yours to build visibility, connect with potential guests, and showcase what makes the Cowichan Valley special throughout the year. Here’s a month-by-month guide to blog topics that align with the region’s seasons, events, and traveler mindsets.

December 2025 – Holiday Escapes & Winter Getaways

The holiday season brings visitors seeking cozy retreats and festive experiences. Position your property as the perfect winter escape.

• “5 Cozy Winter Activities in the Cowichan Valley”
• “Why the Cowichan Valley is Perfect for a Holiday Getaway”
• “Your Guide to Festive Events and Holiday Markets in Duncan”

Events in December:

Holiday Markets and Craft Fairs

• Deck the Hall Christmas Market at Cowichan Exhibition Grounds runs November 28–30, featuring over 120 artisans, holiday music, Santa visits, food trucks, and raffles, catering to shoppers looking for unique gifts and crafts.​
• Christmas Chaos Craft Market takes place November 13–16 at the Cowichan Community Centre, including arts and crafts, Santa’s Workshop, raffles, and a new initiative for young artists to showcase and sell their creations.​
• The Holiday Bazaar in Cedar happens December 6–7 at Pacific Arts Market Gallery, offering goods from 50 local vendors including artwork, crafts, decor, and gifts, perfect for holiday shopping.​

Arts and Entertainment

• Bear Grease: The Musical performs December 5 at the Cowichan Performing Arts Centre, delivering a festive take on classic musical theatre.​

Family and Community Activities

• Winter Wonderland Skate at Cowichan Community Centre provides a seasonal ice skating experience for families throughout December.​
• Community Friendship Dance hosted by Cowichan Intercultural Society will be held December 20, including dance lessons and socializing for all ages.​
• Various community centres offer craft creation workshops and activities for children, especially in the lead-up to Christmas

January 2026 – Wellness & Winter Renewal

January travelers are looking for quiet, restorative experiences. Highlight the valley’s peaceful winter charm and wellness offerings.

• “The Ultimate Winter Wellness Retreat in Wine Country”
• “Forest Bathing and Winter Hiking Trails Near [Your Property]”
• “How to Plan a January Digital Detox in the Cowichan Valley”

Events in January:

Unbox Your Studio Exhibition: The Cowichan Valley Arts Council will host this group art show at the CVAC Gallery in Duncan in January 2026, welcoming submissions from Vancouver Island and BC artists, both members and non-members. The exhibition celebrates meaningful pieces with personal stories behind them, making it an inspiring way to begin the year.

February 2026 – Romance & Valentine’s Getaways

Valentine’s Day drives couples to seek romantic experiences. Showcase wine, dining, and intimate local experiences.

• “10 Romantic Things to Do in the Cowichan Valley”
• “Plan the Perfect Valentine’s Wine Tour Weekend”
• “Farm-to-Table Dining: The Most Romantic Restaurants in the Valley”

Family and Community Events

• Capture what’s going on for local families. The Cowichan Performing Arts Centre and local community centers frequently host family-friendly shows and interactive programming. Listings for February include children’s theatre, music, and special winter activities, so families should check the CPAC and regional arts calendars for newly added events as the season approaches.

March 2026 – Spring Awakening & Early Bookings

People who like the rain will love the Cowichan Valley. Spring brings renewed interest in travel planning. Encourage early bookings for peak season while highlighting emerging spring experiences.

• “When is the Best Time to Visit the Cowichan Valley?”
• “Spring is Coming: What to Expect in March and April”
• “Book Early: Why Spring and Summer Fill Up Fast in Wine Country”

April 2026 – Outdoor Adventure Prep

As weather improves, outdoor enthusiasts start planning trips. Position the valley as an adventure destination beyond wine.

• “The Best Hiking Trails in the Cowichan Valley for Every Skill Level”
• “Cycling the Cowichan Valley: Routes, Rentals, and Tips”
• “Lake Cowichan: Your Spring Fishing and Kayaking Guide”

May 2026 – Garden & Agri-Tourism Season

Spring blooms and farm tours attract visitors. Highlight agricultural tourism, gardens, and local food experiences.

• “Farm Tours and U-Pick Experiences in the Cowichan Valley”
• “Visiting the Best Gardens and Nurseries Near Duncan”
• “A Foodie’s Guide to the Cowichan Valley Farm Trail”

June 2026 – Summer Vacation Planning Peak

Families and groups are finalizing summer plans. Provide comprehensive guides and highlight family-friendly activities.

• “Your Complete Summer Vacation Guide to the Cowichan Valley”
• “Family-Friendly Activities: Keeping Kids Entertained in the Valley”
• “Day Trips from the Cowichan Valley: Victoria, Chemainus, and Beyond”

July 2026 – Peak Season Experiences

Highlight mid-summer attractions and help visitors make the most of their stay during the busiest tourism month.

• “Beaches, Lakes, and Swimming Holes: Where to Cool Off in Summer”
• “The Best Farmers Markets in the Cowichan Valley”
• “Summer Wine Touring: Tips for Beating the Heat and the Crowds”
• “Tubing Down Lake Cowichan. Fun Activities In and Around Lake Cowichan.”

August 2026 – Extended Summer & Event Season

Showcase local festivals and encourage longer stays or repeat visits as summer extends.

• “Can’t-Miss Summer Events and Festivals in the Cowichan Valley”
• “Extend Your Stay: Hidden Gems for Second-Time Visitors”
• “Late Summer in Wine Country: Harvest Season is Coming”
• “End of Summer: What Can Families Do Together Before Going Back to School?”

September 2026 – Shoulder Season Appeal

Target travelers seeking quieter experiences and better value. Position shoulder season as ideal for farm tours, harvest activities and enjoying the Fall.

• “Why September is the Best Month to Visit the Cowichan Valley”
• “Fall Wine Touring: Harvest Season and Crush Events”
• “Beat the Crowds: Shoulder Season Perks and Perfect Weather”

October 2026 – Fall Colors & Harvest

Fall foliage and harvest activities create strong visual appeal. Focus on autumn beauty and seasonal food experiences.

• “Chasing Fall Colors: The Most Scenic Drives in the Valley”
• “Harvest Festivals, Pumpkin Patches, and Autumn Fun”
• “Cozy Fall Getaways: Fireplaces, Flannel, and Wine”

November 2026 – Off-Season Value & Storm Watching

Promote the unique appeal of quieter months and storm season for adventurous travelers.

• “The Beauty of the Cowichan Valley in Winter: Why Visit Off-Season”
• “Storm Watching and Cozy Nights: A Different Kind of Island Getaway”
• “Holiday Shopping Local: Artisan Markets and Craft Fairs”

December 2026 – Holiday Season Returns

Circle back to festive content, year-end reflection, and encouraging advance bookings for the new year.

• “Celebrate the Holidays in the Cowichan Valley: Events and Traditions”
• “Gift Ideas from Local Artisans and Wineries”
• “Start Planning Your 2027 Cowichan Valley Vacation Now”

Pro Tips for Your Content Strategy

Turn each blog post into social media content, email newsletters, and Instagram stories to maximize reach without extra work.

Highlight your community. Include specific place names (Duncan, Lake Cowichan, Shawnigan Lake, Cobble Hill) and phrases like “Vancouver Island accommodation” or “BC wine country getaway” to improve search visibility.

Posts should include stunning photos of Cowichan Valley, Genoa Bay, Maple Bay. Capture your property and local attractions. Visual content drives emotions and, in turn, bookings. Revisit popular posts annually. Make references between the old content and the new content. Don’t recycle. Make sure everything gets a fresh pass with current dates, new businesses, and updated recommendations. End each post with “Book your stay,” “Check availability,” or “Plan your visit” links to convert readers into guests.

Consistent, locally-focused content positions your business as a trusted resource for Cowichan Valley travel planning. When potential guests find helpful, timely information on your website, you’re no longer just a place to stay—you’re their guide to experiencing everything this incredible region offers. Plan your calendar, prep the content and let your content work for you all year long.

Need a Hand?

We have a special deal for getaways operating in the Comox Valley. We’re offering our web design and marketing services in trade for accommodations. Our initiative is called, “Turn Your Cabin Into A Web Page.”

The post December to December Content Calendar for Cowichan Valley Accommodations & Tourism Businesses appeared first on Web321: Your Best WordPress Support.

Our economy and society are working in well-known models. With some minor updates, this is how things will continue to roll until the impacts of artificial intelligence are inescapable. The inescapable moment will come with the general distribution of AGI. We’re in the pregame of that change. Every piece of technology is getting the AI treatment. Government workers are seeing their workflows getting mimicked by AI to process easy tasks in moments and process them automatically. Businesses used to be in dire need of their graphic designers for their branding, advertising and marketing. Many of these tasks are now handled by AI image generators. AI is cranking out AI images, short videos, janky marketing copy. The turnaround time for graphic design and marketing assets used to take days. Apps return those assets in minutes.

All of the simple stuff is going to AI. Intellectual workers who used to appreciate the mix of difficult and easy tasks now have only the hard stuff left on their plates. For junior talent, the change is more profound. Where once they were given all of the easy work, now they’re not being given any work. Entry level jobs are drying up.

Parents will know this dynamic better than others. When a baby is born, there’s little danger of the kid getting into something they shouldn’t. As they grow, the water level of jeopardy rises. Cover the plugs in the wall boards. Put the sharp stuff up high. It’s a slow motion flood of danger. That’s happening with intellectual labour. If AI is the toddler, it’s at the electrical outlet: it has its paws all over the entry level jobs. Eventually, AI will be able to grab mid-level jobs. Before we know it, it’s going to be reaching high for the elite level tasks that usually require senior experts. We’re not there yet. But keep in mind that OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT less than three years ago.

In less than three years, AI has chewed through entry level graphic design, CGI and programming work. It’s overhauling the workflow of large organizations. It took decades of work in the study of protein folding and did all the homework in weeks. It’s true that the level of skills in practice by an expert are exponentially greater than their junior counterparts. But technology grows exponentially.

AI Doesn’t Need A Bathroom Break

For workers, this is a dire time. The bottom rungs of the career ladder have been chopped out. With each passing month, more rungs are going to be chopped out. If someone hasn’t entered into their career already, I don’t know if they could. I follow Indeed’s job feeds. The entry level jobs are gone. At the same time, the elder statesmen in the workplace are peacing out. Many of them retired during COVID. Some of them are ready to do so now. Employers are getting worried: the experts are retiring. The mid-level people are going to be drafted up to the majors before they’re ready. If those mid-career people don’t skill up fast, they’re going to get caught in the rising tide of AI. At the same time, businesses are looking at what AI can do. Some of them are adjusting their product offerings to lean on AI.

For the general public, this is a mixed bag. They get very informed results at lightning speed from AI. In the cases of image generation and marketing copy, that’s sometimes awesome; that’s sometimes slop. There’s good and bad, but the short assessment is that AI is good.

Do Entrepreneurs Like AI?

For entrepreneurs, this is a golden age.

In the 1990s, I was approached by people who basically said, “if you build this app, I’ll split it with you 50-50.” 50-50, huh? So: I make it real and sink in my time and in your largess, you’ll give me half. I rarely accepted those deals.

By the 2000s, the tune changed up. Entrepreneurs had managed some growth and prominence. They promised programmers and designers glory. They suggested that people could work for “exposure.” Exposure doesn’t pay the rent. Lots of influencers could peddle their notoriety for free labour until the talent realized how poor the pay-off was.

The 2010s: the VC game. Venture Capitalists have been around forever. They have had a good run, making the Internet an intrinsic part of our lives. So many startups did a speed run of getting ready for acquisition. That came with the big payday and their cash out, leaving entrepreneurs seeking encores.

Now, it’s 2025. AI powered apps are getting adoption at a lightning pace– almost too fast for VCs to hop on board. As a for-instance, search Youtube for “$10k / month AI App” – there’s an explosion of small scale developers ramping up to health incomes in very little time. They’re finding all of the nooks and crannies where AI could play a role to make people’s lives better, faster and more efficient.

While AI entrepreneurs are making bank, what about those poor entry level white collar workers? With how things are going now, they’re doomed. They’ll never get the first job. They’ll never skill up to be mid-skilled staff. Less likely still, they’re not going to get to those exalted expert positions. We all thought automation was going to take the factory jobs and put robots in McDonalds. Instead: AI has gotten all of the creatives and the paper pushers– the stuff that it easy to feed into a computer.

Where does that leave us? On the current course, this leads to economic disaster. When AGI becomes a part of our day-to-day life, this trend will accelerate. More people will lose their jobs to automation. Corporations will become profitable to a point. Corporations need consumers and out of work consumers are not good consumers. Once we send the workers home, there’s going to be a profound down shift in the fortunes of industry.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) is often touted as the solution to the jobless future. I love the idea, but I can’t make it work. Use Canada as an example: 30,000,000 people. The simple UBI payroll would be $1000/mo – or $30-billion per month paid out to people with heartbeats. I know: pay children? First off: children need food and housing. Second: our social and economic changes have really put a crimp on the urge to start families. There will always be children, and they’ll always need lunch. So, how would Canada pay out a $30-billion/month payroll? Some existing thoughts for how to fund it:

• Increase the GST. Make it 20%. The affluent would pay a lot more for their goodies. The poor would also pay, but having less money means they’d pay fewer GST dollars.
• Charge a robot tax. That’s a fast track to squelching progress. Those who don’t innovate, dodge the tax. Those who sneak in innovation, dodge the tax. Those who don’t want to pay the robot tax can just go offshore and run their robots there.

If I Ran The World (well, Canada)

If I ran Canada, I would look at the landscape of the problem. I would tackle our challenges and opportunities with new policies from government to usher in the world we’re heading towards.

As AGI rolls out, we’re going to eventually lose many of the jobs. It is true that AI will create new jobs and new opportunities. As long as we need experts, their value will increase. At some point, their comparative value and the comparative economy of turning to automation will cross and the experts will be sent home. Their robot replacements will do the work faster, cheaper, without ego and without bathroom breaks. They will break down and for some time, robot repairmen will be the new superstars… until a robot replaces them.

Our demographic is aging: the median age is climbing. This will continue to shrink the number of children and grow the number of seniors in all of the developed countries. Eventually the biggest cohort (Boomers) and their children (Gen X) will be retired and/or in elder care. Even as Canada games out raising the retirement age, it’s eventually going to hit the biological limits of forcing 75 year olds onto the bus every morning to oversee a diminishing workforce of mid-level people who fear losing their jobs.

Automation is going to decimate retail and those retail clerk jobs. It’s going to take the fast food workers out of the back of house and front of house. Kiosks will be sending orders to burger machines that run 24×7 and never pick their noses. The burger flippers are doomed. All it’s going to take is someone rolling out a “Robo-Burger” franchise into the marketplace for every other fast food joint to transform. Automated services are creeping into our lives. At some point, they will be a fixture of business.

Our youth are aimless. Unemployment in the under 30 group is huge. Every generation gets to the age where they look at 25-year olds and say, “when are going to do anything with your life?” In this era, it’s even more profound. Fewer of them are moving out, getting jobs or starting families of their own. They’re jammed into being teenagers for a decade or more.

In China, this situation is a 5-alarm fire. The One-Child policy and the disproportionate number of boys to girls had led to a dilemma. The boys are now men who can’t find partners. They have aging parents with no siblings available to share the load. Good jobs are not as plentiful as they’d wish. The men make a career out of elder care, locked in a cycle of late teenagehood lasting deep into their 60s and 70s. When their parents die, those boys are going to inherit what their parents left to them before following them to the grave in a couple decades.

The sliders of profitability and affordability are going on a roller coaster. That’s going to see a lot of people gouged. It’s going to see disruptive players eat the lunch of unprepared profiteers.

If our economy and society get broken, we’re heading for trouble. When you see protests and civil unrest, what you’re really seeing is people who didn’t need to show up at work that day. Either their job is already gone; or they didn’t care if they lost the job. Civil unrest happens when people have the time to be unruly and when they have nothing to lose. If left as-is, jobs will be in short supply. Incomes and the standard of living will be poor. There will be a lot to grieve and the time to protest or just lash out.

How do we make this all work?

Models of what works often exist in our past. LIkewise, models of what fails will stick out in our history like sore thumbs. The driver of the evolutions needs to come from three places. The government needs to set legislation and establish norms. Workers need to expect more from employers. People need to re-evaluate their role in society and where they find contentment.

My models of what works come from some simple places: COVID, Victoria BC and telecommunications.

COVID

The house arrest vibe of COVID wasn’t fun. What I did like: working from home. More so, after working from home off-and-on for over 40 years, it was nice to see a defacto workplace to match my own. Working from home takes the commute out of the affordability math. It gives workers back 1 to 3 hours per day of unpaid labour that went into commuting. It let them raid their kitchen for affordable, healthy food instead of fast food and salty diner fare. That kitchen raid: it’s cheaper than a restaurant. The found money from no commute and no dining out: that’s money in workers’ pockets. Staying at home is a cold and flu circuit breaker: less illness means less misery and fewer sick days. Also: fewer trips to the pharmacy for $20 cough syrup.  Employers win too: they can shrink their office sizes. They can save on office furniture, phones and all of the trappings of a bulky workplace. As AGI takes jobs, businesses can see their bottom line thicken without seeing the desks empty out.

Working from home. Small offices. Reliance on AI labour. These moves make life more affordable for workers. They also make profitability more likely for businesses.

COVID also showed us that what was once impossible flipped overnight. The “we’ll never do that” evaporated under necessity. Governments also were able to quickly open their wallets to cover the crisis with cash. We can move fast. Industry can move fast. Even governments can move fast when their political lives depend on it.

Victoria BC

Victoria BC: one of the least affordable places in Canada. It also only has 46% employment. Yes: 54% of the residents live in the least affordable city and they do so without a job. If more than half of the people can make a go of it without UBI, having a job isn’t the lynchpin that we maybe thought it was.

Most of the idle folk break into these subsets:

• Children. They don’t work, but they could clean up their rooms a little, you know.
• Retired folk. There are a lot of retired people living here and living off of a pension.
• The disabled. There is a big cohort of people who use a disability pension to survive.
• People living off of annuities. Some people have a nest egg to fund them for the rest of their lives. However they came by it, they are not a small population in Victoria.
• The destitute. Some people live off of nothing. They couch surf. They sleep rough. They rely on the kindness of strangers. They subsist off of aid agencies. When people speak of UBI and the jobless future, this is the cohort that sets fear in our hearts. We don’t want to become poor, homeless, at risk, and in trouble. If the robots take our jobs and we have nowhere to turn, this is our fate.

Of the 400,000 people in Victoria; and the 216,000 who don’t have jobs; 1,800 are destitute / homeless; and 56,000 live below the poverty line– some of whom are actually the working poor. The remaining 160,000 get by without a job. So: you don’t need a job to survive– even in one of the least affordable cities in Canada. If 54% of the community don’t need to work, how many people really need to work?

In Victoria, despite the high share of non-employed people, there is a labour shortage. It has led to many businesses shortening their operating hours. The affordability crisis keeps people from working in low paying jobs. What if low paying retail and service jobs were replaced with automation? Automation could turn some businesses into 24×7 businesses. If the drive-thru order is taken by AI, then the food is prepped by robots, why not keep it open 24×7. Door Dash and Uber Eats are already delivering goods beyond food. If they could pick up supplies from grocery stores and pharmacies run through automation, they could prep the orders for delivery at any hour. Imagine the impact on day-to-day traffic flows if the grocery runs happened by robo-delivery at 8PM instead of after work in-person. Serving those needs could provide new opportunities. Grocery stores that serve only automated deliveries could be set-up in locations with poor curb appeal, but excellent property prices. The rise of Door Dash has brought about “ghost kitchens”– restaurants that only consist of a kitchen and place to pickup orders. Moving operations to more affordable venues could make those ventures more profitable. It may even allow them to offer lower prices… or prices that don’t spike as readily as we’ve seen in the last few years.

What about the low paid service workers ejected by automation? They could skip from entry-level up to management. Consumer needs will persist, so the markets and opportunities will persist, too. Employee-owned businesses could make the same income but distribute the profits to all of the staff. People can invest in businesses that go heavy on automation and live off of the dividends and profits. Government could set up policies and incentives to encourage low income people to participate in the investment of automation businesses then live off of those proceeds.

Telecommunications

Telecommunications and media used to be MUCH more expensive. Up until the 2000s, people with long distance connections used to go broke because of their phone bill. The proliferation of cellphones quickly led to national calling plans; then unlimited minutes; then unlimited national calls – poof. Your $300 phone bill got replaced with a $60 cellphone bill– a phone you can use while at the beach, not tethered to that phone table in the front hallway. It became a massive improvement at the same time, the service (long distance) basically de-commodified. At the same time, Skype then Google Meet and Zoom made even the cellphone bill optional.

Netflix and Amazon Prime have replaced movie rentals taking Blockbuster and all of its competitors off of the playing field. There’s more to this topic as all of the streaming services are now making the replacement option more balkanized and expensive, but the overall service delivery is much less expensive.

The creation of media: that’s an entirely revolutionized situation. When I was a kid, I got a tape recorder– I could make media and I was so grateful. I did get an 8mm film camera but the cost of film developing wasn’t going to work for my 10-year-old wallet. I spent my teens and twenties coveting the video cameras of others. In the 2000s people could get digital cameras for a high cost with lousy resolution. Moore’s Law quickly improved audio and video capabilities. Nowadays many of us have 4K video cameras in their pockets. With the advent of text-to-AI video, there may be another implosion of costs with a beach scene and a space battle costs the same pennies to create.

Moore’s Law on cellphones has created a different problem: profit contraction. Your $100 cellphone from 2000 did so little, and your current $1500 phone does so much. By Moore’s Law, that phone should be $10 now. Why did it go the other way? Profit. The slicked back sales reps at cellphone stores need a commission to make their job worthwhile. The commission on a $10 phone would be pointless. An artificially expensive phone would be seen as gouging. To keep the price points high, the features have to continue to skyrocket: more memory, high resolution, better apps.

As technology improves cost and quality continue to improve geometrically. It’s the best example of “decommodification.”

Decommodification

We’re all well aware of how supply chain disruptions made commodity prices jump. Inflation is about the deterioration of buying power. Economists cheer when it’s low and we all suffer when inflation is high. Deflation is often considered worse. I am not an economist, so I stand on my small sandy hill and say: Deflation is good. We need it. We need affordability more than we need the benefits of long game compounding investment interest.

Deflation and decommodification will drive affordability. As people need less money, it changes the math. Where before maybe a household need $150k to keep the lights on, maybe automation can deliver a plunge in prices to give people a decent life with much less money.

Housing

House prices are the best example of an economy off course. The houses have not gotten better. The ground has not gotten more verdant or picturesque. The population pressure have made them more sought after. The malpractice of government has made housing a lot more expensive for new builds. It means that existing home supply is a bargain– a bargain that can remain a comparative bargain event if the price points rise closer to the new housing supply. Our demand is constant (1 person needs 1 home); the supply has fallen behind demand. Housing prices should have increased, but not to the extent we’re seeing.

Housing needs a soft landing to flatten inflation. Government policies can make this happen.

My first suggestion: change tax laws to let all mortgage holders write off the interest they pay. In the early years of a mortgage, most of the payments go to interest. As they continue, they start to bite into the principal of the loan. If the mortgage holders can get a tax credit for that interest, it would benefit them. People who paid cash for their homes: they wouldn’t get a tax credit. As people progress through their mortgage and the interest share diminishes, the tax credit diminishes. Those tax credits can be paid by also changing the tax structure to extract more money from the big banks. Yep: that will kill the best friends of politicians (ie. the banks), but making banks into a source of revenue for the general public is long overdue.

Second suggestion: make the CRA the lender of last resort. Banks are profiting off of mortgages. They’re making billions of dollars. Why shouldn’t the government do that instead? Reap those profits and use them in lieu of taxes to pay for things we all need in the world of AGI.

Financing and affordability are more important than simple housing supply. Developers have been allowed to slow walk housing supply to keep healthy profits rolling in. There needs to be policy shifts to change the housing situation. When housing becomes less expensive, it increases the likelihood of access to home ownership; and it takes the pressure off ot people’s budgets.

Look at what happens when there is a big housing announcement, and the government pledges something like $100 million to a program. In today’s markets, that’s equal to 400 apartments or maybe 200 homes– that’s not a government program. That’s a lottery. A lottery that millions of people lose out on. We lack affordable housing more than we lack housing. If the CRA were a lender, it could couple its access to money with the government’s ability to set policy and legislation. It could limit what properties are eligible. It could set rules that sellers may have to adhere to. Best of all: a $100-million program gives 400 people apartments. $100-million in mortgages gives those same people housing and it eventually pays back along with a bonus $100-million the government can use to fund more mortgages and/or pay for government programs. Governments can also pledge long mortgages, giving people some predictability to their futures. This pressure valve in the mortgage market will force banks to up their game.

Electricity

As we decarbonize, we’ll rely more on the electrical grid. Eventually, we’ll be all the way swapped over to electric heat, electric cars, and the need to power our compute. Relying on one source is a tremendous risk. Some time ago, the price of solar dropped to the point where it’s the cheapest source of energy. Eventually, fusion power will come about– maybe in 20 years? 😉 Thorium fission will come into play to power remote locations and industries that may need much more than what the power grid could easily handle. Best of all, they’re small and relatively safe. As they become common, their price could drop. As a base load power source, they could back stop the intermittency of solar, wind and wave power.

This expansion of electricity into our lives could lead to the costs per kilowatt dropping. Homeowners who deploy solar panels can often be completely power independent inside of a decade. It effectively freezes the cost of their electricity. As some power companies have fallen into the hands of profiteers, sidestepping them entirely is the best defense.

If electricity is cheap, and electricity powers physical and cognitive work, then it can be more efficient than we were currently seeing. People who generate their own power would have effectively decommodified their heating, recreation and transportation costs.

Medical Costs

Healthcare in Canada is going to Hell. As soon as the Boomers bulged into the years where they needed lots of care, the system really started to rattle. Already, affluent people can use medical tourism to jump the queue on elective procedures. There have been calls to privatize healthcare but this will lead to haves and have-nots. Eventually, taxpayers who are underwriting poorer people will call for further cuts for the sake of their own bottom line. We don’t want that. What we do want is affordable healthcare.

Medical interventions can prove really expensive. They’re also a choke point. They won’t double up in operating rooms or otherwise scale to meet demand. The more they’re relied on, the worse the system will work. Operations are scary: every technique to avoid them is a win. Governments are doing lots to try to get people to age healthy: exercise, dietary choices, and the like are in place to head off health crises as long as possible.

Likewise, medical appointments can add up. It takes too long for patients to see a doctor. That exacerbates some health conditions needlessly and simply put: why do we need to suffer?

Policies need to change. There has been a shift to allow pharmacists to do more in the doctor’s stead. That trend should continue and more people in the healthcare field should get the work that overloads doctors to free them up to see patients.

There needs to be technical improvements in the healthcare system. Too often do doctors claim they can’t get access to test results or the files held by other health practitioners. Wherever a digital system can replace a personal interaction, it should get automated. At the same time, make prodigious logging and reporting available for quality control. When it comes to medical billing, the entire regime needs simplification. Doctors are not accountants and it’s poor use of our tax dollars to make them that.

We need Chat GPT… to a point. Over recent years I have turned to 811. In BC, it’s a healthcare line where people can post questions to a registered nurse or similar healthcare expert. They answered a question fairly quickly; and I didn’t need to go into the emergency ward or book a doctor’s appointment. Keep drawing through this trend line. It simultaneously feels like the best idea and the worst idea to turn to AI with healthcare questions. There has to be a middle ground: an AI that can field questions; it can deliver home based solutions; and it can get their patient to escalate to a professional. If an AI could take the place of some of 811, that would make the system less expensive, maybe less crowded.

We need to put AI into senior care. Visit a nursing home and you’ll see first hand the mismatch of patient needs compared to the labour available. At the same time, private elder care can be eye-wateringly expensive with some places costing $10k – 20k per month per patient.

Use AI pattern recognition to monitor residents to detect those in distress. Similar to police bodycams, patientcams could monitor seniors and routinely delete old footage to keep alive some balance between privacy and accountability. I have a camera perched in my garage. It cost $30. It alerts me if there is motion. It differentiates between the types of motion. Imagine if that basic hardware and connectivity were ramped up with AI image detection– a system to see if someone had fallen and couldn’t get up. It could be anticipatory– detecting when someone is in imminent trouble. Many injuries compound during the wait time to rescue. The Golden Hour rule in first aid is all about getting someone into treatment inside of the hour following the injury. Some injuries are much more complicated to treat if there is a long delay before treatment. Imagine the cost savings of sometimes stopping accidents before they happen, or at least getting an aide worker to them in seconds.

AI and the advances in robotics could help with senior care. The costs of robots are falling. At the same time, their capacity is improving. We may soon see a situation where a $20,000 robot shadows a senior to help them get up, carry their groceries, or catch them before they fall. A 24×7 care worker for a fraction of the cost of the current flesh-and-blood versions. Yes: this does accelerate our race to joblessness by sending care workers home, but it has to happen. Seniors need round-the-clock potential care. They need aid without attitude or sick days. Seniors need a continuity of care that is humanly impossible. After the $20k spend and the maintenance cost of a robot, this could greatly reduce the per-patient costs as we get to an era where senior care is going to explode. If robots shadowing seniors seems like sci-fi, think about how fast we all adopted cellphones– and a cellphone has never helped anyone carry a bag of groceries. Anyone who has a senior friend or relative in extended care knows that these places come up short. There’s too much demand. There’s too much jeopardy. The wage:workload ratio is lousy, leaving disaffected workers caring for infirm people. Technology can play a role with monitoring, the early detection of issues, and the labour needed to manage the residents.

Getting In On The AI Economy

All of the entrepreneurs are trying to turn their side hustle into money to free them from the 9-to-5. Businesses looking to adopt automation need to find a path to automation. They could just bankroll new devices, but more likely than not, they need to finance or defer the costs. It’s not uncommon for businesses to lease their equipment. What if there were automations and AI solutions that could be leased? That would create on-going income for the company that supplies the solution. People could invest in these integrators and collect the dividends.

Making The Jump

How does all this add up? What’s the big plan?

The realities:

• Change is coming. AGI could be in a year, a decade or maybe two. When it comes, it will disrupt our workplaces, our economy and our society.
• We can change fast. COVID showed us we could shift in weeks. If someone tells you otherwise, they’re lying.
• We can’t afford inflation.

Technology can make electricity less expensive and make our lives more affordable. As automation replaces workers, the costs of service and manufacturing will drop; businesses will be more profitable; and hopefully both things will happen. That could make more billionaires, but it could also lead to less expensive products and services. If those billionaires get too greedy, disruptive players could deliver the same services at a deep discount and take their market share.

Policies can be used to make healthcare and housing less expensive. They are our biggest concerns in day-to-day life. Will we be healthy? Will we be able to afford our home? If people are jobless, they won’t have employment income. Tackling affordability will be paramount.

People already tap into non-employment income to live decent lives. A post-jobs future will change things like pensions, but it won’t eradicate that some people already don’t work for a living. The people displaced by automation could live a decent life if we got some of our expensive line items down. They could live off of AI dividends; or profit sharing in employee owned businesses. For the few who don’t have access to a job, a hustle, a dividend or a pension, there would need to be money to provide them a basic income and those dollars need to go further. Technology has already done a lot to skyrocket literacy; improve incomes worldwide; and connect us for good or ill. It can permeate further into our lives to shoulder all manner of labour while we reap the rewards.

I’m not suggesting UBI. For a reason I cannot fathom, universal basic income has a stink on it. When the Swiss voted to adopt UBI, it handily lost. The spectre of UBI is often held up as an example of the threat of woke socialists. Despite the merits of UBI, it may never come about. I argue that we do better than living off of government handouts. Our current world is too expensive and we keep getting less for more. Technology can turn the tide on that trend. We can find new venues to invest in. We can turn to new technology that will accomplish big tasks economically. Those economic wins can make our day-to-day life more affordable.

We can live well, if government changes policies and makes new legislation to usher in a wonderful albeit messy world of artificial intelligence.

Linked Sources & Further Reading

• WEF – Jobs most at risk from AI: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/05/jobs-most-at-risk-from-ai/
• McKinsey – Generative AI and the future of work: https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/generative-ai-and-the-future-of-work-in-america
• World Bank – Universal Basic Income debate: https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/universal-basic-income-panacea-or-pipe-dream
  
• IMF – Solar now cheapest energy: https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2020/10/13/solar-power-now-cheapest-energy-in-history
  
• OECD – COVID accelerated remote work: https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/covid-19-and-remote-working-the-new-normal-3b0d2f78/

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